Navy Yard responders had information overload, D.C. official says

Communications complications during the Navy Yard shooting in September stemmed from too much information, not too little, D.C. Deputy Mayor Paul Quander said Tuesday morning.

Reports of faulty radios for first responders emerged in the aftermath of the shooting in Washington, where subcontractor Aaron Alexis killed 12 people and injured three others before being killed by police. But there weren’t technical problems, Quander said — rather, there was information overload.

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“One of the issues that we discovered is that on the channel that we were operating, there was too good, too much communication,” he said at POLITICO’s emergency preparedness event. “So one of the things we will move toward is how do we limit that communication so that the most relevant players have access to that and we move the other communications to another channel.”

A variety of federal and local agencies were connected during the shooting, Quander said. Collaboration between different jurisdictions, he added, is particularly important in Washington, given that emergency management groups outside the Beltway tend to be on high alert when something’s happening in D.C.

“We were able to communicate with others throughout the country in a secure environment so that other jurisdictions would know exactly what was transpiring here in District,” he said. “The other concern for many jurisdictions is that if an event takes place here, in the District of Columbia, is there something else that could impact their jurisdiction?”

Incorporating social media into emergency response is one of the pressing concerns for the next generation of law enforcement, Quander and other public safety officials at the event said. That includes both disseminating information and using social networks to as a resource-gathering tool, they said.

Republican Rep. Susan Brooks, who visited her home district in Indiana where destructive tornadoes hit over the weekend, said law enforcement officials in that area were active on social media. She said new communications tools are supplanting the traditional 911 system for some victims, especially younger ones.

“They’re not inclined to call 911 — that’s what we learned from the Red Cross. People were posting that they were trapped,” said Brooks, chairwoman of the House Homeland subcommittee on emergency preparedness. “Law enforcement after Boston were learning about things through Twitter and through Facebook.”

But questions about how to facilitate communications between first responders are still top of mind. Congress green-lighted a new communications network for police and firefighters last year, but only $7 billion was allocated to construct the so-called FirstNet, far short of some estimates that put the cost as high as $15 billion.

There’s a large push from public safety officials across the country to get the network up and running, FirstNet Deputy General Manager TJ Kennedy said at the event.

“We need it now more than ever, I think that’s the reason why public safety fought to make it a reality,” he said. “We have great support from our brothers in public safety to make it happen, and I think that as we move forward we’ll be able to prove that we can roll out terrific capability across the country that is really sorely needed.”

Brooks, though, expressed frustration that FirstNet is still in its relatively early stages, even though it was recommended years ago by the 9/11 Commission.

“We’re really kind of just getting started, and I think with the danger that this country faces from a lot of different threats around the world — the world’s not getting any safer, quite frankly — we need to accelerate these conversations,” she said. “What is the public sector’s role, what is the private sector’s role? How will it get funded?”